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Science

New Photos of Io 47

Posted by Hemos from the pretty-eye-candy dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "NASA has just released new images of Io taken by Galileo during a flyby several days ago. The images are far better than anything taken of Io before, and an article on the flyby is on ABCnews.com. Apparently NASA wasn't sure if Galileo would survive the radiation it would experience from passing that close to Jupiter, and put off the photo-flyby as long as possible-but it worked, and they're hoping to get one more set of pictures. " The all important question, now, though, is how to make some of these my background image. *grin*
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New Photos of Io More

New Photos of Io

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  • On the other hand, yours has just displaced mine...
  • It is simply amazing. Voyager 1 and 2 are simply one of the shining examples of Human Engineering that we have.

    On one end, you have a machine that is for all intents and purposes free flying trying to track an object that is probably less than an arcsecond away from something that is now just another point of light(Earth and the Sun)...and all on 1970's hardware!

    On the other end, the technology has improved 100 fold but the signals are week and so low bandwidth (160 bps, thats right, BITS! :-) )that it is still a mircle that these deep space arrays can pick out the signal from the other radiation out there.

    Think about what has been accomplished with the Voyager Project. Think about trying to do it again with today's technology! These days, if a project like Voyager was proposed, it would get lost in the budget hacking frenzy in Washington DC. Where has the sense of accomplishment and discovery gone?

    Checkout The Voyager Project Home Page [nasa.gov] while you are at it.
  • All the photos they have online...HERE [nasa.gov]

  • Re:The REAL energizer bunny (Score:3)

    by PD ( 9577 ) <slashdotlinux@pdrap.org> on Saturday October 23, 1999 @09:08AM (#1592981) Homepage Journal
    If the Mars Observer was one of those old expensive probes, we'd be waiting 10 years for another probe to Mars. It was a huge deal when the Mars probe was lost in 1993(?). That was an expensive one.

    Instead, we've lost a probe, and some people wasted some good years of their lives working on the failed mission, but we've got several missions to mars waiting in the wings, or due to arrive at Mars in just a couple months. It's a better way to go.

    Even the poor people who spent all their time working on the failed Climate Orbiter mission might be able to salvage their time and research invested by joining other teams, or maybe starting up a brand new project right away. This is much better than letting their awesome talent go to waste.

    I also like the idea of spreading the instrument packages around to different spacecraft. If we'd lost Voyager 2, then we'd never have gotten a chance to look at Uranus or Neptune up close. It would have been safer to launch 3 or 4 tiny spacecraft instead, and expected 1 of those to fail. We'd have gotten 3 looks at Uranus and Neptune instead of just 1.

  • If you look closely you'll see a very distinct humanoid face in that picture. I'm surprised that NASA would be careless enough to allow evidence of life on Io to be released like that.

    Well, I'm sure they'll replace it with another picture soon enough. Could someone please mirror the original picture before they change it?

  • well aperenty when people were talking about it in the posts they said IO, so sorry if i didn't know that Io is a moon. The point was that I saw Io and was like "huh? whos that?" Then after reading the summary I had some clue, but still didnt know what the heck Io was! You dont have to start troll pointing just cause I made a mistake :(
  • Yes, the old over-engineered designs might still be chugging away, but they might also have failed because the backup for the backup for the right thruster burned a fuse, and shorted the whole she-bang out in an unexpected side effect of change 176. Either way, you're going to lose some. It's just on average how much you lose that makes the difference.
    Chief Prosecutor
    Advocacy Department
  • Just think - if they'd open sourced the programming, someone might have noticed that miles /= kilometres, and there wouldn't be a nice new crater on mars.
    Chief Prosecutor
    Advocacy Department
  • For the most part, they don't mind, but here you can read their "Picture Use Policy":

    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/policy/

    They do "request" that you at least give them credit for the picture.

    Regards,

    Chris

  • And I was looking forward to seeing the pics of Io...
  • Err, wait. You're probably not. If you can show me something that could plausibly be a face in that picture, I'll mirror it.
  • OK, if NASA pretty much makes these images freely available, has anyone made really nice Posters out of them? Some of those colour shots of Io are just stellar (pun intended).
  • OK, not too shabby...however, I don't think I will replace my [nasa.gov] desktop background just yet.
  • Io was recently quoted as saying, "Yes, that's me in the picture, but that volcano is clearly a fake. I'm not mad as these people, I feel sorry for them. Their obsession with heavenly bodies is something they should think about. I do blame those who maintain these web sites like NASA, they don't have a right to use my likeness with doctored photos so they can sell banner ads."
  • So do a web search, or (gasp!) consult an encyclopaedia. Don't expect people to spoon-feed you. Sorry; but really, I don't want /. posts dumbed down to the extent that everyone can understand them without knowing *any* background. Perhaps the "hard words" should be explained too?
  • According to the NASA statment, the sun is coming from the right of the photo. But it sure looks to me as if the sun is coming from the left.

    What do you guys think?

  • Re:IO? (Score:1)

    by bertd ( 53884 )
    The four Galilean moons of Jupiter (Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io) are very famous. They are named after characters of Greek mythology. You can find them in almost any dictionary.

    They were the first objects discovered that clearly did not revolve around the Earth. This was a big deal at the time. Galileo got in trouble for pursuing this idea to its logical conclusion.

    These moons are used as settings for numerous science fiction novels, and Star Trek, and they were on Nova just last week.
  • All I wanted was "(one of jupiters moons)" or something like that, would that totally dumb down the whole piece? I don't really keep up to date on every thing NASA is doing. I don't think that everyone on slashdot knows what the hell Io is. It really annoys me that simply making this one suggestion would get such angry replies and no agreements. I guess proving someone wrong is more important.

  • Cool (Score:3)

    by rde ( 17364 ) on Saturday October 23, 1999 @08:23AM (#1592998)
    I got these pictures earlier, and must confess that the closest pic was a bit of an anticlimax. This is my own fault, I suppose; I don't know what I was expecting.
    Cooler by far is the image with the rather cool title of MO3811ED8E20C261B.tif (the page is slashdotted at the moment, so I can't find a link. Sorry).
    9m per pixel? Wow. Congrats to all at NASA.

  • Re:Cool (Score:2)

    by rde ( 17364 )
    I've stuck the picture (now a jpg, and considerably smaller) here [irelands-web.ie]. I hope NASA don't mind.
  • Sigh, and the voyagers could at least send us back color photos.

  • The color ones are even better (Score:3)

    by elfbabe ( 99631 ) on Saturday October 23, 1999 @08:40AM (#1593001)
    http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/io/iocolor.html Some of these are in true color, and some of them aren't, but they're all a little more fun to look at than the black-and-white ones, no matter what the resolution.
  • ...the voyager probes just keep going... and going... and going...

    I'm constantly amazed by the engineering of the early space probes. They must of been designed to be more rigid and stronger than diamonds.

    So when Jan of 2000 comes around, what are they going to make it do next? Deep space probe number 4?

  • more pictures of IO (Score:3)

    by J. Tang ( 16252 ) on Saturday October 23, 1999 @08:30AM (#1593003)
    Some other pictures of IO are at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/ima ges/io/ioimages.html [nasa.gov].
  • If Heywood Floyd can do it, anybody can. He was doing stuff like that at 125 years of age or something. What we need now are some monoliths and a couple hallucinations.. grab a couple boxes of poptarts and let's have a big evolutionary party. Cinnamon poptarts, of course.

  • You can get these pics (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Nasa has an Astronomy pic of the day site. There's one of Io in true color from July 3, 1999 passby: httP://photojournal.ipl.nasa.gove/cgi-bin/PIAGenCa talogPage.pl?PIA02308 Another great pic from the astonomy pic of the day which I have on my PC: a picture of the earth seen from MIR during the eclipse -- shows the shadow on the earth. It's from August 30, 1999 and it's in the archive. Personal use is fine with them. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990830.html
  • bout time for me to get a new desktop image ...
    i had a previous image of IO... but these are TONS better

  • Re:The REAL energizer bunny (Score:3)

    by pq ( 42856 ) <rfc2324&yahoo,com> on Saturday October 23, 1999 @08:45AM (#1593008) Homepage
    And this is the real pity - with NASA's new "faster better cheaper" program, the missions do exactly what was in the initial mission, no more (though sometimes much less - look at the Climate Orbiter fiasco).

    So something like the Sojourner Rover died in a month (its minimal design goal was a week) - if this had been one of the older Cadillac-style overengineered no expense spared missions, it would still be chugging away and getting good science done, instead of having provided us with tantalising glimpses of stuff and then making us sit and twiddle our thumbs for two years.

    Of course, "faster better cheaper" means that a single failure is not catastrophic - so the loss of the previous Mars Polar mission was a total disaster (it was one of the big missions) and left us with nothing going towards Mars for years, while the Climate Orbiter failure is unfortunate, but only a six month to one year delay.

    Meanwhile, the last of the old dinosaurs speeds on towards Saturn - in spite of the stupid and misguided protests over its RTG power source. People in the planetary science community are praying that Cassini does an Energizer Bunny on them, because the next look at Saturn is at least another decade away...

  • I wonder if the /. effect would be considered a denial of service attack?

    : )
  • For those who do not know, IO has been called "the pizza moon". note the small images in color -
    they capture the essence of this much better than a black and white image (which i'd never use for a background anyway. too depressing).
    i suppose this is just one more proof it isn't really pizza, more like a pile of frozen SO2 and nitrogen.
    maybe if they had a color version i'd use it as a background -
    would remind me i need to disconnect to order a pizza now and then ;)

  • ... (Score:2)

    by Signal 11 ( 7608 )
    Yes, but I want to know that the round object is doing a zero-g pull towards the satellite - and don't you tell me THAT was a JUST another weather balloon!

    It's the biggest coverup of all time! NASA knows about the existance of ET! They've been denying it all this time, but they can't forever!!! We're going to find out, and then your world's gonna END!

    Oh, gotta go... the intern's calling for me to take my meds again..



    --
  • Opps hit the return accidentally... Anyway, I was about to say... Could the people who write something like this possibly not use acronyms without telling what they mean first. I really did not know what IO was and it would be nice if it wasn't assumed that everyone knows what it means. It would only take a second to add a short phrase saying what it is before talking about it. Thanks for listening.
    _joshua_
  • I'm constantly amazed by the engineering of the early space probes. They must of been designed to be more rigid and stronger than diamonds.

    Indeed. Now, the next big thing is more numerous, smaller, and cheeper probes. Which is good in it's own right, less risky and all that. And maybe the simpler ones will be even tougher. But that's the question, will NASA continue to be able to make probes that go on and on, and have multiple uses over their lifetime. There is something to be said about flexibility. Sure, theoretically the ideal is possible, but we are talking about funding here.

    I always keep an ear out for tidbits about the future of space exploration, and how the U.S. and other countries are going to fund it. The trend, despite any of NASA's efforts to the contrary, is to move towards privatizing space. Just look what Boeing and their contemporaries are doing in the area of sea-launch platforms. Pretty spiffy looking stuff...

    I guess what I'd like to know is whether or not NASA might be around in the future, and whether or not they'll be contributing their expertise. If anybody could fill this in, that'd be great. Cause I've been to busy doing artsy-fartsy stuff to keep up, much.

  • Re:IO? (Score:1)

    by fwr ( 69372 )
    Err, What?!? Io is the name of a moon, or satellite to use the more correct term, of Jupiter. It's not an acronym.

    They DID "take a second to add a short phrase" describing what it was all about. Jupiter, flyby, Galileo, NASA, radiation. All of these terms should have given you some clue! Or, may be not...

    Was that a troll?
  • They can and do make color images from black and white ones. We got color pictures from Mars by
    compositing red, green and blue filters over a black and white imager. It just takes more effort.

    I just had a sudden flashback to my old Amiga 1000's DigiView setup, with its cardboard color filter wheel. Those were the days! :^)

  • Background (Score:3)

    by MindStalker ( 22827 ) <mindstalker@gmai ... com minus distro> on Saturday October 23, 1999 @08:53AM (#1593016) Journal
    Rob really needs to put a "Background" section in slashdot. As a referense to finding Robs fav background images of all time.
  • "angry replies and no agreements" -- I guess it wouldn't occur to you that, if this is the case, it's possible you might be wrong? Look, I wasn't getting on your case for the sake of it; but really, in a piece specifically about Galileo getting "closest-ever-yet" to Io, asking *what* Io is, is, well.... fill in the blank.
  • They can and do make color images from black and white ones. We got color pictures from Mars by compositing red, green and blue filters over a black and white imager. It just takes more effort.
  • >it is the only body in our solar
    >system which has active vulcans

    You mean the pointy-eared guys like Mr Spock? I thought they weren't supposed to make contact with us for another hundred years or so.
  • I _honestly_ thought taht Io was some kind of weather system or mountain range or something like that... It could be anything really. Sorry that it wasnt so obvios, I should know better than to say anything about slashdot writing style, other than Dr Katz whom everyone rips on.
  • So when Jan of 2000 comes around, what are they going to make it do next?

    Galileo's extended mission is scheduled to end at the end of this year. However, if the spacecraft is still healthy, and there is additional funding available (not a sure thing; NASA's space science programs lost about $60 million in the fiscal year 2000 budget), there has been discussion of extending the mission through 2000. This would permit an additional flyby of Io in early 2000, more flybys of Europa and Ganymede (two other large moons of Jupiter) as well as joint observations of the Jupiter system with Cassini, which will fly by Jupiter on 2000 Dec 30 en route to Saturn.

  • Re:Cool (Score:2)

    by PD ( 9577 )
    Nasa probably won't mind at all. The nice thing about government publications is that they are not copyrighted in a lot of cases (military publicity shots of old bombers).

    In the case of the particular image you're referring to, JPL/Caltech has given permission for induhviduals to use the image for personal non-commercial use, but it's not clear if they retain copyright. If they do not retain copyright, then you can use the photo for whatever you like without asking their permission. If they do retain copyright, then you need to use the picture according to their policy, or ask permission. Check out the policy link on the IO photo page.


  • So something like the Sojourner Rover died in a month (its minimal design goal was a week)

    Actually the rover, deployed a day after Pathfinder's landing, was still operating when contact was lost with the lander three months after landing, so it far exceeded its one-week design life. (The lander was designed for a one-month mission, so it too lasted longer than planned.)

    if this had been one of the older Cadillac-style overengineered no expense spared missions, it would still be chugging away and getting good science done, instead of having provided us with tantalising glimpses of stuff and then making us sit and twiddle our thumbs for two years.

    Actually, if it has been one of those "overengineered no expense spared missions", it would have likely performed no science -- the mission would never have been approved, or would have been delayed and/or canceled because it would be far too expensive than what NASA can afford these days. Or else it would have flown, followed by nothing else for a decade or more, like Viking.

    Congress showed in the 1980s that it had little appetite for expensive missions like Galileo and Cassini (anyone here remember missions like CRAF?), and little has changed since then. A "faster better cheaper" philosophy lets you do more missions for less, but as always, there are tradeoffs.

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